


Xuéshēng

by kiriya



Series: Post-Series Xing Collection (Starring Greed) [3]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Gen, Greed is Alive, Post-Series, Xing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-26
Updated: 2016-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-23 07:53:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6110065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiriya/pseuds/kiriya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alphonse tries to teach Greed Xingese.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Xuéshēng

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING! Brief mention of gore in reference to Greed's first death.

Greed grunted in frustration, and shut the old, leather-bound book before him. Dust flew everywhere, and he started coughing. Alphonse covered his mouth with his shirt and started waving away the particles. Learning a language shouldn't have been this damn difficult. Greed buried his face in his hands and groaned, long and loud, earning himself a scowl and a thump on the back of his head from his teacher. 

"Ow!" Greed exclaimed, rubbing the sore spot where Alphonse had hit him. He looks back at the ancient _ Introduction to Xingese _ , and couldn't muster the spirit to reopen it. Greed had been through hell, and it had not broken his spirit. He's been alive for two hundred years (on-and-off). His favorite people in all the world-he-planned-to-rule   - had been slaughtered by his own kin. Said kin crucified him, dipped him in a big steaming pool of molten villain cliche, and Greed laughed all the way through it, despite feeling his flesh bubbling and his muscles being seared off his bones. Greed had witnessed the end of the world, and gave his second life to stop it. How was it he could have been defeated at the hands (pages?) of a secondary school textbook? 

¨... This is hard." Greed says. 

"No, it's not!" Alphonse insisted. The aspiring alkeherist, bless his no-longer-armor-bound soul, had graciously agreed to take time out of his own studies to teach Greed Xingese. "You're not focusing hard enough."

¨Yes, I am," Greed assured him. And why wouldn't he? It's not like he likes being in a place where he couldn't understand a thing anybody is saying, where finding a goddamn bathroom was like going on a quest for the Holy Grail. He began to suspect Alphonse grievously overestimated his academic aptitude, or lack there-of. "I've never had to learn anything in my life."

Alphonse rose a skeptical eyebrow.

"Homunculi are born knowing all the practical world knowledge we'll never need," He explained. "Although I did learn enough Aerugan to dirty talk to-" 

"That's enough," Alphonse cut him off, making every effort to keep a straight face but blushing all the same. Greed only added the last bit to get that reaction out of him. Alphonse heaved a sigh. "You can't even focus on one line of thought, can you?"

"Homunculi minds are like steel traps," Greed continued, "If I wanted to know something out, I only had to look at it once and I'd remember."  


"Greed, if you'd just apply yourself-"  
  


"Not all of us could perform human transmutation at age ten."   
  


"Get out some ink. We're practicing your handwriting."

 

 


End file.
